Strathisla Distillery

Strathisla
Distillery

Strathisla Distillery stands on the east bank of the River Isla not
far north of the centre of the market town of Keith. Brown tourist signs point the way, and if
you follow them you end up in a pleasantly landscaped car park on the opposite
side of the B9116 from the distillery itself. Close by is the Fons Bulliens
Well, the water source traditionally used by the distillery.

Strathisla is the oldest continuously operating Highland distillery,
and we discuss its long history below. It is also, without a shadow of doubt,
the prettiest distillery in Scotland. The setting and landscape, the shape of
the stone buildings including the triangular section of the still house, the
imposing pagodas, and the water wheel all combine to produce an effect that is
quite enchanting. If they did distilleries in fairy stories, then they'd have
to model them on Strathisla.

You begin your visit in the reception area of the visitor centre,
reached via a courtyard between the arms of the building closest to the road.
This was clearly once the distillery office, and from here you can progress
through to a number of other rooms set out to allow you to make the most of
your visit. These include the stylish and tastefully stocked shop, and a very
attractive room set out as a Victorian study complete with large leather sofas.

If you didn't already know, the shop is the place that brings home
most clearly the fact that Strathisla is in one respect a little unusual among
distilleries with visitor centres. Bottlings of Strathisla as a 12 year old
single malt whisky are available, but the distillery is best known as the home
of Chivas Regal, "the world's most prestigious premium blended Scotch". Too
many of us are becoming snobs who view blended whiskies as necessarily inferior
products. Strathisla is as good a place as any to discover that some blends can
give the drinker an experience every bit as refined as they could expect from a
single malt. Different, yes, but not second best.

The distillery tour is like stepping back in time. Especially
striking is the millman's office, a wooden enclave set within a corner of one
floor of the building. The mill itself is a standard issue red Porteus. You
almost stumble across the mash tun, set within a space that feels just a little
too small for it. The almost flat copper top is, unusually, raised from the
stainless steel body, with the gap between them filled in by a mesh grill that
extends all way around the vessel.

There are two tun rooms, each with a collection of washbacks in what
initially appears to be a random scatter across the room. There are ten
washbacks in total and all are made from Oregon pine. Most show signs of
considerable age, though at the time of our visit some were fairly recent
replacements in wood that had yet to acquire the dark patina of age and use.
You can find out more about Making Malt Whisky from our
series of feature pages showing the stages in the process.

The highlight of any distillery tour has to be the still house, and
this is especially true at Strathisla. The stills are housed in one of the
triangular section buildings shown in the header image, and the way they are
almost enclosed by the eaves of the roof space adds a huge amount of character
to equipment which already has a certain mystique. You enter the still house
from the rear, on a walkway that at first gives only glimpses of the stills
themselves. From here you can look down on the spirit safe and, having
descended to examine it, you then need to climb again to reach the level of the
floor surrounding the stills. There are four of these and their "fit" within
the building is so tight that any major work requires the removal of part of
the roof.

The layout of the distillery and the confined nature of some of the
spaces mean that Strathisla may not be the ideal place in which to try to
understand the distilling process for the first time, but this is amply made up
for by the sheer charm and character of the place. Visit too many distilleries
and they can be a little difficult to distinguish from one another in the
memory. Strathisla is unforgettable and you are unlikely ever to confuse it
with anywhere else.

Cask filling takes place at the neighbouring Glen Keith distillery.
The bonded warehouses at Strathisla are as fascinating as the rest of the
distillery. What is particularly interesting is the slope at the end of the
warehouse, complete with wooden "rails" on which casks of whisky would be
rolled up for storage on the upper floor or, considerably more quickly and
easily (and, presumably, dangerously), back down again when the time came to
bottle. One end of the warehouse we were shown is home to the "Royal Salute
Vault", named after Chivas's super-premium blended whisky aged at 21 years.
This is home to some rather special casks, including a Glenlivet signed by
Prince Charles.

Milltown Distillery, as Strathisla was known for much of its life, was
established in 1786 by George Taylor and Alexander Milne. Some accounts suggest
that the distillery was extensively rebuilt and its name was changed to
Strathisla following major fires in 1876 and in 1879. There's a problem with
this version of history. The distillery was visited by the author
Alfred Barnard when he was
researching his definitive book on distilleries between 1885 and 1887. He knew
it as "Milton Distillery", but notes that the whisky it produced was marketed
as "Strathisla Whisky". As far as the buildings were concerned,
Alfred Barnard says that
"all the Distillery buildings have an old-world look,
suggestively characteristic of the long established character of the
works..."

Combine this description with the two page engraving in his book
showing the whole of the distillery, which includes a number of buildings
easily recognisable today and it seems reasonable to believe that parts of
today's distillery date back to the very early years after it was first
established. Meanwhile, a large crest dated 1695 on the gable end of the shop
(previously part of the maltings) facing the road suggests that at least one of
the buildings might have been in use even before the distillery commenced
operations.

In 1949 the distillery's then owners were declared bankrupt because
of unpaid tax bills. The following year Milton Distillery was acquired at
auction by Chivas Brothers Ltd. They changed the name to Strathisla Distillery
to reflect the identity of the whisky it produced, and in 1961 they doubled the
number of stills from two to four. In 2001 Chivas Brothers became part of
Pernod Ricard.